Karen, a 48-year-old human resources executive from Birmingham, was astounded to learn last summer that she has early signs of cirrhosis, the incurable liver disease.

She does not consider herself a "big" drinker – she cannot recall the last time she was drunk – but until her diagnosis had enjoyed a couple of large glasses of wine most nights. "In my early 30s, I might have shared a bottle a night for a few consecutive evenings with my ex-partner, who enjoyed a few. But that was about it," she said.

There has been a steep rise in the number of professional women suffering from health problems associated with alcoholism. Karen, who did not want to be named, was diagnosed last year after becoming concerned about a bloated stomach. While she does not think her drinking would have been curbed by an increase in price, – "I tend to buy wines that are £6 or £7 a bottle, and don't think I would have changed my habits if it had been a pound or two more" – she does think she has been failed by a lack of education.

"Somewhere along the line, I did not learn about the real dangers of alcohol. I, like most people I know, thought you could drink a few most nights and not do any permanent damage. I know differently now," she said. "People need to know the dangers, to counter the adverts and the misinformation from the industry."

Nick Sheron, a clinical hepatologist at the University of Southampton, believes many people underestimate the potential effect of their drinking. About a third of his cirrhosis patients are severely alcohol-dependent, but a third are just social drinkers who get into a pattern where they are drinking too much, he says. "Eighty units [a week] is just over a bottle of wine a night. Half of all my patients are drinking less than that."

It is not binge drinking that does the damage in these cases;, it is steady, habitual drinking, often from youth. At least 50% of alcohol dependency develops between the age of 16 and 34. The mean age of alcohol-related deaths is 54. They don't see it coming.

"The development of liver disease is a completely silent process," Sheron says. "It doesn't hurt. The GP might not pick it up with a blood test. You develop an end-stage process. Your liver is screwed."

Gary Topley, 32, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was surrounded by alcohol from a young age, because his adoptive father was a professional darts player in pubs and clubs. He began drinking in large quantities at 18 when he moved into a hostel.

"I was drinking nine pints of lager on an evening and then a group of us would share a 24 party pack of Fosters. We would pick them up from off-licences, supermarkets, anywhere," he said. "It was easy then, and even easier now. A mate was telling me that now you can buy drinks from his local chemist. It is everywhere and it is cheap."

Health professionals and recovering alcoholics such as Topley want the government to curb the power of the drinks manufacturers and supermarkets.